The 2025 college football offseason was dominated by a couple names out of recent NFL glory.

Manning. Belichick.

The combination of coach Bill Belichick and quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning won 10 of the 18 Super Bowls from 2001-2019, often going through each other to get there.

Now Belichick, 73, was trying to reinvent himself as a college coach at North Carolina. Meanwhile, Arch Manning — Eli and Peyton’s 21-year-old nephew — was set to take over at Texas as the next generation of the family business, quarterbacking.

The hype was breathless. The expectations were considerable.

Then reality hit across Labor Day weekend, leaving the fawning media and preseason predictions to deal with incompletions, interceptions and an avalanche of public scorn.

On Saturday, Manning and his Longhorns ran into the brick wall of an Ohio State defense (led by a Belichick protégé, defensive coordinator Matt Patricia). The Buckeyes won 14-7, and Manning went just 17-of-30 passing, often looking confused and uncertain on the field — although still smooth and polished in television commercials during the game.

Monday night it was Belichick’s turn; his Tar Heels were humbled by TCU at home 48-14. What began as an electric, star-studded (even Michael Jordan was there) event ended with empty stares and emptier grandstands.

Neither tried to evade responsibility.

“Not good enough …,” Manning said after his loss. “That starts with me. I’ve got to play better for us to win.”

“They outplayed us, outcoached us, and they were just better than we were tonight,” Belichick said.

Both men were correct. Neither was good enough. More precisely, neither was close to as good as the summer of attention suggested.

Manning wasn’t terrible, but he certainly didn’t look like the betting favorite to win the Heisman Trophy and become the No. 1 pick in next spring’s NFL draft. He was just another college quarterback with a ton to learn.

Belichick, meanwhile, wasn’t some magician who could just wave a wand and make Carolina into an overnight juggernaut. Anyone who expected that was a fool; coaching matters, but not as much as talent. Despite bringing in 70 new players, UNC doesn’t have enough of it yet. None, for example, were named Tom Brady.

That doesn’t excuse the performance. Belichick inherited a middling program from Mack Brown, but not one that ever looked this bad. This was a humiliation.

So now comes the hard work for the old coach and the young quarterback, generations apart but somehow in similar positions. They come off a weekend of social media taunts into a week of mainstream questions about whether they are anything more than products of their bygone names.

Fair? Of course not, especially for Arch. His grandfather and uncles were NFL stars, not him. This is his first season as a full-time starter. He has always said the right things, was patient for two seasons and, for the most part, tried to just blend into the team despite his family’s fame.

That said, those commercials for Warby Parker and Vuori airing while he was struggling on the field, all but assured backlash from fans who are always eager to scream about nepotism.

The good news is the upcoming Longhorn schedule — home games against San José State, UTEP and Sam Houston followed by an off week. SEC play doesn’t ramp up until October.

Manning showed flashes of potential against a dominant, talented and clever Ohio State defense — likely the best he’ll face all season. Give him some time to settle in while lying low, and the opener can be overcome.

“The growth throughout the game for Arch was really encouraging,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “We are going to be fine. For Arch, the expectations were out of control on the outside. I’d say let’s finish the book before we judge him. That’s one chapter.”

For Belichick, altering the story may be more challenging.

TCU is an excellent program playing with an experienced quarterback (Josh Hoover) and a chip on its shoulder from the lack of pregame attention — the Horned Frogs won nine games last season, after all.

The Heels won’t always look this bad — they are favorites against Charlotte this weekend and then host Richmond before a trip to rebuilding UCF. September can be salvaged.

Still, Carolina didn’t show much talent. The transfer portal allows for teams to reboot a roster quickly, but it isn’t easy. When you are trying to prove that the school’s big investment in the program — and weathering of so much media attention on your young girlfriend — was worth it, getting blown out on opening night isn’t ideal.

This is going to be a process — a multiyear one. Belichick has promised to be in Chapel Hill for the long haul, which actually seems more likely now. It’s doubtful any NFL owner tuned in Monday and thought of hiring him.

Can he still coach them up to a bowl berth or more? Of course. That’s a more realistic goal for UNC.

Can Arch Manning prove to be a good quarterback on a title-contending team this season? Of course. That needs to be the objective for him.

It’s the only way to forget a long weekend where offseason hype met the real world.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Belichick said. “We’ll get at it.”

There’s no other option now.

The Colorado Rockies began their 2025 season at Steinbrenner Field, playing the displaced Tampa Bay Rays at the Yankees’ spring training facility in Tampa, Florida. The Rockies and Rays were tied 2-2 when Colorado’s Victor Vodnik came on to pitch in the bottom of the ninth. He threw one 97 mph fastball — which Rays outfielder Kameron Misner, a 27-year-old rookie, deposited into the right-field bleachers for a winning home run.

It was Misner’s first home run in the majors, making him the first player in MLB history to hit a walk-off home run on Opening Day for his first career home run.

Let’s just say that game set an early tone for a season that quickly spiraled into a long list of ugly losses, with displays of baseball that might make a Little League coach hide in shame. For two months, the Rockies played like the worst team in major league history, or at least the worst team since the 1899 Cleveland Spiders — a team so bad it ended up playing most of its games on the road before folding at season’s end.

“I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t been difficult,” starting pitcher Kyle Freeland told ESPN’s Jesse Rogers. “We have a ton of young guys and we’re trying to pull in the same direction to get us back on track to where we want to go, but it’s been a very difficult year. This second half has felt like we can breathe a little bit more. We’ve played better baseball but we’re kind of hot and cold, really.”

The Rockies started 9-50, at which point it seemed certain they would shatter the modern record of 121 losses, set just last season by the Chicago White Sox. To their credit, the Rockies have played better since the All-Star break and will avoid that fate of history. But in one regard, they’ve still been worse than the White Sox: They just lost their 100th game and have been outscored by 362 runs. Meanwhile, the White Sox were outscored by 306 runs all last season.

Babe Ruth called baseball “the best game in the world.” But he never watched these Rockies play. They have lost games in every way imaginable — and some in ways you couldn’t imagine if you tried. Let’s look back on how they got to 100 losses.

Loss No. 5: The “traditional” loss

We begin the Rockies’ woes with the Philadelphia Phillies sweeping them in the second series of the season by scores of 6-1, 5-1 and 3-1 to drop the Rockies to 1-5.

Taijuan Walker started the final game for the Phillies, coming off a 2024 season in which he had been so bad that his mother once cried in the stands as her son was booed. She flew in from Arizona to watch this game and texted her son that she was crying again — with joy, after Walker pitched six scoreless innings in the 3-1 victory.

The Rockies were hitting .203 as a team with a .553 OPS after this initial road trip. On Reddit, Rockies fans were already suffering. “I am not normally this cynical,” wrote one fan. “But man, this team …” Another wrote: “Hunter Goodman and Kyle Freeland are the only ones allowed to fly back home. Everyone else can take the bus.”

How bad would the Rockies’ offense become in 2025? Colorado has been shut out or scored only one run in 35 games — already a franchise record. A majority of those games have come on the road, where the Rockies are hitting just .208 with a .266 on-base percentage.

Loss No. 6: The “extra innings” loss

The home opener. Over 48,000 fans packed Coors Field on a frigid, 37-degree Friday afternoon that featured snow flurries during the game. The players were dressed as if they were on Shackleton’s voyage to the South Pole.

It was a weird game. The Athletics Athletics made three replay challenges and were successful each time. In the fourth inning, Kyle Farmer was doubled off second base on a fairly routine pop fly to center field. On a double in the sixth, the A’s held Tyler Soderstrom at third base, but Ezequiel Tovar tossed the ball in over the third baseman’s head, allowing Soderstrom to scamper home. In the eighth, Farmer appeared to tie the score with an inside-the-park home run after the ball was lodged under the outfield fence, but the A’s won the challenge and it was ruled a ground-rule double (the Rockies managed to tie it anyway).

The A’s won 6-3 with three runs in the 11th inning. The Rockies haven’t been good enough to play many extra-inning games, but you won’t be surprised to know they are 1-5 when they do. You also won’t be surprised to know the Rockies’ bullpen hasn’t been good. They will lose many games in the late innings. To be fair, they will also lose many games in the early innings.

Loss No. 9: The “Bad News Bears in the field” loss

This was a 17-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. Antonio Senzatela, who has spent his nine-year career with the Rockies and is 4-15 with a 7.12 ERA in 2025, gave up nine runs, while the Brewers scored five or more runs in three separate innings for the first time in franchise history. But it was the fielding — or lack thereof — that distinguished this game. The Rockies made four errors. There was no snow to blame: It was 71 degrees at game time.

Error No. 1: On a base hit to center field, Brenton Doyle overruns the ball, allowing the batter to reach second.

Error No. 2: Tovar bobbles a grounder and can’t get the force out at second.

Error No. 3: Jackson Chourio hits a slow tapper back to pitcher Seth Halvorsen, who chucks the throw five feet over the first baseman’s head.

Error No. 4: On a base hit to center field, Mickey Moniak bobbles the ball, allowing the runners to move up a base.

All careless errors.

“Uncharacteristic for us,” manager Bud Black said at the time. “We’re used to really clean defensive games. That’s part of what we pride ourselves in. Tonight was not that night, for sure. You play 162 games during the course of a season. We’re not going to have many games like that — if any, really.”

The Rockies would have more games like this. Only the Boston Red Sox have made more defensive errors this season.

Loss No. 12: The “you can’t win if you can’t score” loss

So, it turns out that Phillies series was nothing. The Rockies hit the road in San Diego and lost 8-0 (with three hits and 15 strikeouts), 2-0 (four hits, nine strikeouts) and 6-0 (two hits, eight strikeouts). Yes, that’s nine hits across three consecutive shutouts. The Rockies fell to 3-12 and became only the third team since 1901 to, over three games, score zero runs, have fewer than 10 hits and strike out at least 30 times.

When Black was asked if anything could be done to right the offense, he said, “No, this is our group.”

Loss No. 15: The “starting pitcher forgets to show up” loss

The Los Angeles Dodgers knocked out German Marquez in the first inning with a seven-run outburst, holding on for an 8-7 victory as the Rockies struck out 16 times — four times each by Ryan McMahon and Braxton Fulford. Marquez, a former All-Star, is now 3-12 with a 6.14 ERA and .314 batting average allowed.

Marquez isn’t the only Rockies starter to struggle in the first inning. The team’s first-inning ERA in 2025: 7.96, which puts them on track for the worst first-inning ERA in the wild-card era (the Rangers had a 7.89 ERA in 2000). Opponents are hitting .340/.395/.571 in the first inning against the Rockies — essentially what Matt Holliday hit for the Rockies in 2007, when he finished second in MVP voting. That means the Rockies are turning what is an average hitter against them in the first inning into an MVP-caliber slugger.

Loss No. 18: The heartbreaking “only the Rockies can lose this way” loss

This one was a gut punch, as delivered by George Foreman in his prime. Trailing the Kansas City Royals 2-0 with two outs and nobody on in the top of the ninth, Royals closer Carlos Estevez walked three batters in a row and then Jacob Stallings cleared the bases with a three-run double, putting the Rockies up 3-2. But the Royals tied it in the bottom of the ninth, sending it to extra innings.

Moniak was the designated runner in the 10th inning and moved to third base on a sacrifice. Then, Royals catcher Freddy Fermin picked him off with a well-timed laser beam of a throw when Moniak wasn’t even that far off the base.

Freddy Fermin and Maikel Garcia combined for a nasty pickoff in a clutch spot! pic.twitter.com/E6i6BwYioB

— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) April 23, 2025

The Royals won in 11 innings on a wild pitch, two intentional walks to load the bases and Fermin’s walk-off single.

At this point, we’re not even through the end of April yet.

Loss No. 27: The “three walks followed by a grand slam” loss

Leading the San Francisco Giants 3-1 in the sixth inning, Colorado’s Bradley Blalock walked two batters followed by Jake Bird walking a third before Matt Chapman cleared the bases with a grand slam. The Giants won 6-3, dropping the Rockies to 6-27.

The Rockies have not given up the most grand slams this season. But their pitchers have faced the most bases-loaded situations of any staff in the majors.

Loss No. 33: The “how to get your manager fired” loss

The San Diego Padres pummeled the Rockies 21-0 at Coors Field, bashing out 24 hits as Blalock gave up 12 runs to start the game. A large contingent of Padres fans were in attendance and did the wave in the sixth inning, rubbing salt into the bleeding wound. It could have been worse: Backup catcher Stallings gave up only one run in pitching two innings. It was the biggest shutout victory in Padres history and only one run short of the largest shutout in MLB since 1900 (Cleveland had a 22-0 shutout over the Yankees in 2004 and the Pirates beat the Cubs 22-0 in 1975). Stephen Kolek became the first visiting pitcher with a shutout at Coors Field since Clayton Kershaw in 2013.

As the headline on the Purple Row site read: “Padres 21, Rockies 0: They only lost by three touchdowns…”

The unfortunate folks managing the Rockies’ social media — now that’s a tough job — had this reaction:

pic.twitter.com/Tj64IJyhzz

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) May 11, 2025

To top it off, this was the final game in an incredible stretch of terrible pitching: The Rockies gave up 10-plus runs in four consecutive games and 72 runs over a six-game stretch (16 of those runs were unearned).

Before the game, general manager Bill Schmidt had addressed the state of the club, saying, “I feel for the fans, I feel for the people around here. I know we are better than we have played, but we are not good right now. We have to battle through it and get to the other side.”

Said Black: “It’s a tough loss, but it’s just one game.”

He was fired the next day.

Loss No. 43: The “10-run inning” loss

Tied 1-1 in the top of the fifth inning, the Yankees scored 10 runs on their way to a 13-1 victory. The rally: single, double, walk, E1, intentional walk, sac fly, single, sac fly, single, wild pitch, double, walk, single, double, strikeout.

Loss Nos. 53, 54, 55, 56: The “bullpen blues” losses

No. 53: The Rockies served up a season-high six home runs, four of those by the bullpen, in a 13-5 loss to the New York Mets.

No. 54: Zach Agnos and Vodnik gave up four runs in the ninth in a 6-5 loss to the Giants. Agnos gave up a home run and then walked three batters. The tying hit came with two outs on Wilmer Flores‘ swinging bunt down the third-base line that had an exit velocity of 49 mph. Even when the Rockies make a good pitch and get a good result, it turns into a bad result.

No. 55: The Rockies gave up seven runs in the final two innings in a 10-7 loss to the Giants. The go-ahead run in the eighth inning came on a safety squeeze in which the Giants’ baserunner was initially called out at home, only to have the call overturned on replay.

No. 56: A day after the Rockies beat the Giants 8-7, the Atlanta Braves rallied from a 4-1 deficit to win 12-4 with 11 runs from the sixth through eighth innings — all off the Rockies’ bullpen. The Rockies committed four errors (two on one play by first baseman Keston Hiura), threw two wild pitches and grounded into four double plays.

In this loss, Bird gave up a three-run home run in the sixth that tied the score.

“The bullpen has been really good, other than three of the past four games,” interim manager Warren Schaeffer said after the game. “‘Birdman’ always gets the job done. That was an abnormality. Tomorrow, I expect ‘Birdman’ to get the job done, because that’s what he does.”

Alas, that was not the case. Bird would have a 12.21 ERA over his next 16 appearances before he was traded to the Yankees.

The next day, the Rockies lost 4-1 to the Braves, striking out 19 times, a franchise record for Atlanta. The loss dropped the Rockies to 13-57, the worst record through 70 games in the modern era (since 1901). They were on pace for a record of 30-132 and had been outscored 441 runs to 229 (for a run differential of minus-212), or just over three runs per game, which is a stunning level of — there’s no other word here — incompetence. They had played nearly half a season and were on pace to be outscored by 490 total runs. The worst run differential in a full season since 1901: minus-345 runs, by the 1932 Red Sox (in a 154-game season). The 2023 A’s have the worst in a 162-game season, at minus-344 runs.

It’s not hyperbole to suggest that, for 70 games, no team in 125 years played worse than the 2025 Rockies.

They have fared better since that point in the season, at least in the win-loss department, but that run differential sits at minus-362 runs. Unless they miraculously outscore their opponents in the final month, they’re destined to make their own dubious history for worst run differential in the modern era, even if they won’t set the modern record for losses.

Indeed, the Rockies still managed to find special ways to lose games as the season continued.

Loss No. 58: The “walk-off home run” loss

The Rockies scored a run in the top of the 11th to take a one-run lead against the Washington Nationals. James Wood then did this:

JAMES WOOD
GAME OVER
WALK-OFF HOMER 😤 pic.twitter.com/wb5SDPFQB3

— MLB (@MLB) June 19, 2025

Loss No. 60: The “really bad baserunning” loss

The key moment in a 5-3 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks came in the seventh inning when it was already 5-3. Colorado’s Moniak doubled and Sam Hilliard walked with nobody out. The Diamondbacks brought in reliever Ryan Thompson — who promptly picked off Moniak at second base. Remember, Moniak was the runner picked off third base in extra innings earlier in the season.

The Rockies, along with poor hitting, pitching and fielding, are not a good baserunning team. They are tied for the MLB lead in getting picked off. They have the worst stolen-base percentage in the majors. The baserunning metric at Fangraphs identifies the Rockies as the worst baserunning team in the majors at nine runs below average.

Loss No. 62: The “lose a pop fly in the rain” loss

The Dodgers and Rockies were tied 0-0 in the sixth inning in a rare pitching duel at Coors Field, with Rockies rookie Chase Dollander on his way to the best start of his career — amid what had been a trying season for the 23-year-old right-hander. With two outs and two on, and a steady downpour of rain descending from the tears of the baseball gods, Dollander induced a pop fly from Max Muncy. Second baseman Thairo Estrada called for it. The ball landed 10 feet away, nearly plunking first baseman Michael Toglia in the head. In a season of bad plays, this might be the worst, rain or not. Two runs scored. The Rockies lost 8-1.

Loss No. 63: The “yes, this actually happened this way” loss

On the other hand, maybe the worst play of the season was in Colorado’s next loss. Trailing the Dodgers 3-1 with one out in the bottom of the ninth, Tyler Freeman was on first base when Estrada lined out to left-center field. The one thing Freeman absolutely cannot do in that situation: get doubled off first base for the game’s final out. He wasn’t even the tying run. Well … he got doubled off first base.

Loss No. 66: The “failed pickoff that leads to an impossible grand slam on an impossible pitch” loss

Tied 1-1 with the Houston Astros in the third inning, Dollander has Mauricio Dubon picked off at second — except he throws it away for an error. A few batters later, Victor Caratini belts a grand slam on a pitch so high out of the strike zone, it had just a 3.8% likelihood of being called a strike. The Rockies lose 6-5.

Loss No. 77: The “just an old-fashioned blowout” loss

The Baltimore Orioles won 18-0 at Camden Yards, belting out 18 hits and scoring nine runs in the seventh inning while recording the largest shutout in franchise history. That makes it two teams to record their largest shutout in franchise history against the Rockies in 2025. Along the way, the Orioles became the first team to have 12 different players record both a hit and a run scored in the same game. Only one of the 18 runs came off a position player. Oh, and the Rockies had only two hits.

Selected comments from Reddit about this game:

“Yeah, but take away their seventh inning, we only lose by nine.”

“Well, it wasn’t 21-0.”

“Good news is the Dodgers lost too, so we didn’t lose any ground.”

Loss Nos. 82, 83, 84: The “yes, it can get worse” losses

A three-game home series in early August against the Toronto Blue Jays turned into a series of historic proportions … at least if you’re into the macabre.

No. 82: Lost 15-1, giving up 25 hits

No. 83: Lost 10-4, giving up 14 hits

No. 84: Lost 20-1, giving up 24 hits

The final tally, you ask? That would be 45 runs, 63 hits and a .453 average allowed over the three games. The Blue Jays set modern records for runs and hits in a three-game series.

“We’ve got to make better pitches,” Schaeffer explained.

There have been more losses since, of course. Tanner Gordon gave up 10 runs in a start, a game in which he and Ryan Rolison gave up nine straight hits with two outs. The Rockies scored one run in three games in getting swept by the Pittsburgh Pirates — but, hey, Paul Skenes started one of those games. The blowouts have piled up, the shutout losses have piled up and the calls for owner Dick Monfort to sell the team have increased in volume.

But along the way, there have been those games that remind us baseball fans that, even in a season of complete misery, one of the worst baseball teams of all time can create joy.

There was a 14-12 win in Arizona, when the Rockies hit five home runs to rally from an 11-6 deficit. There was the walk-off win against the Giants on June 12, when Colorado scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth, with Orlando Arcia driving in the winning run. There was Hunter Goodman’s pinch-hit, two-run home run in the top of the ninth that gave the Rockies a 6-5 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Aug. 13. Three days after that, Colorado scored six runs in the bottom of the eighth to beat the Diamondbacks. Two days after that, there was the walk-off win over the Dodgers when Tovar doubled and rookie Warming Bernabel singled him in.

Maybe no game better encapsulates how the magic of baseball can persevere even for MLB’s worst teams than the matchup between the Rockies and Pirates on Aug. 1 — a game of absolute no consequence, two terrible teams in the dog days of summer playing out the string. It was a perfect 84-degree night at Coors Field and 36,000 fans showed up to enjoy the atmosphere, food and scenery at one of the best ballparks in the majors. They saw one of the wildest, most exciting games — maybe the most exciting — of the entire major league season.

The Pirates scored nine runs in the top of the first inning. The Rockies chipped away. The Pirates tacked on three runs in the fourth and three in the fifth. The Rockies scored four in the bottom of the fifth to make it 15-10. The Pirates added another run in the sixth but left the bases loaded. Yanquiel Fernandez hit a two-run homer in the eighth for the Rockies to make it 16-12. Dugan Darnell pitched two scoreless innings for the Rockies in his major league debut.

In the bottom of the ninth, Goodman homered with one out. There was a walk, Bernabel tripled down the left-field line and Estrada singled him home. Brenton Doyle stepped in with the Rockies down 16-15. He got just enough of an 0-1 slider:

(good)Nightmare Fuel 😈#Rockies x @denvermattress pic.twitter.com/nfFwgr9xKG

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) August 2, 2025

“I’ve never seen anything like this.”

That’s for sure.

HOUSTON — Astros starter Framber Valdez said he apologized to catcher Cesar Salazar after hitting him in the chest with a pitch Tuesday night, but the left-hander insisted it wasn’t intentional.

Valdez appeared to shake off Salazar on a 1-0 pitch with the bases loaded and Trent Grisham of the New York Yankees at the plate in the fifth inning. Salazar then urged Valdez to step off the mound, but he proceeded with the pitch, which Grisham launched to deep left field to give New York a 6-0 lead in an eventual 7-1 win.

On the second pitch to the next batter, Valdez hit Salazar in the chest with a 93 mph pitch, raising questions about whether he was upset about what happened in the Grisham at-bat and if it was intended.

Valdez said it was not.

“What happened with us, we just got crossed up,” Valdez said in Spanish through an interpreter. “I called for that pitch, I threw it and we got crossed up. We went down to the dugout and I excused myself with him and I said sorry to him and I take full responsibility for that.”

Valdez was then asked directly if he did it on purpose.

“No,” he said. “It was not intentional.”

Valdez and Salazar were talking when reporters entered the clubhouse after the game, and Valdez said they had sorted things out.

“We were able to talk through it,” he said. “We spoke after the game … at his locker and everything’s good between us. It’s just stuff that happens in baseball. But yeah, we talked through it and we’re good.”

Salazar also was asked about what happened on the pitch where he was hit.

“The stadium was loud,” he said. “I thought I pressed the button, but I pressed the wrong button. I was expecting another pitch, but it wasn’t it.”

Salazar said Valdez didn’t hit him on purpose.

“No, me and Framber we actually have a really good relationship,” he said.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.